57 To Lose Their Jobs At Ricoh Office In Glastonbury Ct

[Anonymous]

57 To Lose Their Jobs At Ricoh Office In Glastonbury Connecticut

Ricoh, which makes digital imaging equipment and electronics, is laying off 57 people at its Glastonbury office at the end of November.

Dan Costa, whose wife has worked in customer service at the office at 855 Winding Brook Drive for 16 years, said workers got the news Monday.

"It’s been like a surprise to everybody there, there’s no writing on the wall if you will," Costa said.

Ricoh told customers in April that it had finished integrating IKON Office Solutions, which the Japanese corporation bought in 2008. It said then on its website that it would ask customers to do self-service online, requesting service for copiers, ordering supplies and the like. Many of the workers in Glastonbury took those kinds of requests by phone.

"We continually look for ways to improve the customer experience and simplify our processes," Ricoh spokesman Steve Marchant said. He also there would be about 25 new jobs in order management and billing in Glastonbury.

Departing workers will receive a week’s pay for each year they worked for Ricoh and its predecessors.

Collections work done in Glastonbury will move to Macon, Ga., a company spokesman said.

At the same time Ricoh told 57 workers in Glastonbury they would no longer be needed, it also closed a business unit in New Jersey, where 72 people will be laid off. It disclosed both actions in a letter to the Connecticut Department of Labor. By law, companies must report when they eliminate at least 50 jobs at once.

Costa said he worries about what will happen to their family, which includes two children in their early 20s. He said the family relied on his wife’s health insurance. He said he was laid off in January when his printing company closed after being purchased by a company in Maine, and he liquidated his retirement savings to pay for heating oil and other bills this past winter. He said he also sold his truck.

"The printing business, it’s a dying trade," Costa said. "I’ve been laid off six times in the last 10 years. Sometimes it was just for a month when they got slow."

[Author]

October 4, 2012 at 9:43 AM